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BetterWorld was honored to speak recently, as part of a panel at Net Impact’s annual conference, Net Impact 2012, in Baltimore, Maryland.

Net Impact is a global nonprofit that works to inspire the next generation to work beyond business for a more sustainable future through chapters, events and professional development. Nearly 2,800 attendees converged to help celebrate Net Impact’s 20th anniversary conference. As an organization that apparently started in a hot tub as a conversation between  visionary business leaders, Net Impact has grown up considerably, with over 30,000 members and widespread recognition.

Our panel, Small Business, Big Engagement: Using Social Media to Tell Your CSR Story was led by Julie Dixon, of Georgetown University and featured  Josh Helland, CEO of Sleep with a Purpose, and Bonnie Shaw, Engagement Specialist and faculty at Georgetown University. Sleep with a Purpose operates with a similar model to TOMS Shoes, buy a bed, give a bed to someone in need.

The overarching theme of the conference was aligning good business with good works and speakers ranged from Teach For America Founder Wendy Kopp, whose organization has grown to have lasting impact in inner city schools, to Auret Van Heerden, CEO of the Fair Labor Association, who shared a searing tale of his experiences as a labor organizer and surviving torture in South Africa.

One of the most intriguing panels highlighted business partnerships between sustainable brands and mainstream partners, with two case studies of Honest Tea and Coca Cola, and Waste Management and Recycle Bank. In the realm of sustainable brands, purchase by large household brands is a common story. In this panel, both companies set about convincing the audience that the benefits of distribution and resources of a large corporate partner outweigh the potential for watering down purpose and/or altering quality. Honest Tea is a BetterWorld customer and a fellow Benefit Corporation, and we love what they do. However, the contradiction in purpose was highlighted in an audience question regarding the recent California proposition 37 (regarding labeling of genetic foods), which Coca Cola campaigned against, and Seth Goldman, TeaEO of Honest Tea, admitted that if they were an independent company, Honest Tea would likely have supported.

Net Impact has a broad reach and the companies interested in recruiting sustainably minded MBA’s in the event expo included brands not necessarily known for their sustainability credentials, such as Monsanto, Disney, Pepsi, Target, Verizon, and Dupont. The question remains whether passionate business students will tip the scales within those companies or assimilate into the business status quo.

Perhaps the most encouraging theme at this conference was that when it comes to risk management and longterm planning, it turns out corporate citizenship is not just the right thing to do, it is sound business practice. One striking example of this was Coca Cola, who has hired researchers around the world to thoroughly evaluate watersheds that impact their supply chain, threats to those water sources, and features of those ecosystems. In some regions of the world, that research is the first and only resource for government planners and local communities.

Sustainability conferences can fall into an echo chamber of self congratulation and lauded case studies, but this one contained substance.  We applaud Net Impact for furthering the conversation, inspiring the next round of business leaders, and helping push sustainability into the mainstream corporate sphere.

BetterWorld recently co-hosted the first Market Street Forum, a new quarterly gathering of Bay Area leaders, with a focus towards the intersection of the broadband economy + future of work + the resulting benefits for our society and environment.

In collaboration with Varsity Technologies and the American Sustainable Business Council, BetterWorld launched Market Street Forum with featured guest speaker, President of the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco, David Chiu.

Chiu was an excellent speaker to address current and future changes to the San Francisco business environment, specifically in the heart of the city. As companies and organizations from the Bay Area continue to lead the way towards the new Access Economy, there is a growing trend of tech businesses moving into San Francisco. This trend can be attributed in part to the work of Chiu. The widely publicized move of Twitter into the Tenderloin/Mid-Market area of San Francisco is a direct result of city policy championed by Chiu, through providing business tax incentives and the elimination stock options taxation for startup companies.

Chiu also sponsored recent legislation providing contracting preferences for Benefit Corporations.
Ushering the legislation through many rounds of fine-tuning, Chiu was ultimately successful in sending a strong signal to the private sector that San Francisco wants to do business with companies committed doing good.

The discussion was lively, with topics ranging from the resounding success of SFMade, B Corps, to the politics of city hall, eliminating red tape and unnecessary bureaucracy, the need for a collective voice from the B Corp community and the lack of processes to survey the business community to determine the most urgent pain points.

SFMade is an organization that has grown steadily in the last two years, promoting and supporting the value-add manufacturing sector in San Francisco and leading to both more friendly city policies and the creation of more manufacturing businesses.  When asked for an example of red tape, Chiu highlighted the hurdles for new restaurants, who must deal with 11+ separate permit offices before being able to open, which usually causes a delay of 2+ months.

Chiu has passed several pieces of legislation that are first in the country including:

• Requiring strict energy audits requirement for commercial buildings
• Expansion of urban agriculture opportunities in San Francisco
• Decreasing the distribution of unwanted Yellow Pages phone books
• Greening nail salons by phasing out the “toxic trio” of chemicals in nail polish

San Francisco is a city that has historically been at the forefront of public policy nation-wide and the inspiring discussion at the Market Street Forum made it clear that Chiu is dedicated to upholding that precedent. Chiu is running for re-election in November, 2012 for President of the Board of Supervisors.
More about Chiu at http://www.votedavidchiu.org/

The Hub is a worldwide network of over 25 collaborative work spaces that provide a creative environment as well as a professional infrastructure to work, meet, learn and connect. As their credo declares, “The Hub is designed to facilitate the creation of sustainable impact through collaboration.”

Hub Bay Area has two work spaces, one in Berkeley at the David Brower Center, and the Hub SoMa, which is in the San Francisco Chronicle building and part of the 5M Project and steps away from the TechShop and Intersection for the Arts, and Square. The Hub is a vibrant community of individuals working to make a difference, and many members are social entrepreneurs, creating new business models to create positive social change through the lever of business.

We’re proud to serve some of these inspiring organizations housed at the Hub, as well as the Hub Bay Area itself. We’re also happy to be members as well of this change-making community.

Here’s what the Hub community had to say to the question - What Change Does the World Need Most?

BetterWorld was out making change with fellow local businesses at this year’s BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The 2012 BALLE Business Conference: Real Prosperity Starts Here conference connected more than 700 community innovators, business owners, and investors to people, resources and ideas to unleash local prosperity.

BetterWorld President Matt Bauer stopped off to speak with Rob Trube of BizWestMichigan and talk a little about BetterWorld, B Corps, Worldblu, and BetterWork™.

BizWestMichigan Interview at BALLE 2012

“Innovation is an unreasonable request” says Adam Lowry, Co-founder of Method, the ground-breaking San Francisco-based company who has taken soap to heights of “coolness” normally reserved for electronics and pop culture. Lowry was just one of many business leaders in discussion at the inaugural Sustainable Corporation conference, put together recently by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and held at Oracle’s campus in Silicon Valley.

Although there were many inspiring stories of sustainability, (including the famous case study of Serious Energy’s groundbreaking eco retrofit of the Empire State building), Lowry’s insights from the trenches stood out. Method is a company so centered on design thinking and product excellence, that their sustainability credentials are an after thought.

Much like software innovation, Method has created a culture and internal process heavy on proto-typing, with resin, shelf design, photography, and bottles all easily created, evaluated and modified. Method’s motto of “progress > perfection” is strikingly similar to Facebook’s “move fast and break things”. Both encourage an environment that supports creative confidence and a norm of learning and creating by the whole team. This is the Method method, which, incidentally, is also the title of a book about the company due out later this year.

Lowry’s claim that innovation is an unreasonable request hinges on the operating imperatives of a company. Because true innovation is sweeping in scope and usually impacts the core functions of a company, it is not readily embraced - no one wants to threaten the engine of a company. However,  sustainability requires innovation, and for that to be possible, a company must have a culture open to change in the first place.

Lowry emphasized that the competitive benchmark of the future is the experience economy, whether the iPhone, the interior of a car, or Method soap. The “how” is the disruptive part of a product, not the what. “Green is not a differentiator,” says Lowry, “people don’t want a badge, they want a better product”.

We’re committed to sustainability here at BetterWorld. But above all, we’re committed to excellent service and world class products. Because caring for people and planet is just one facet of what a really great service and company should do. That’s the future of business.

And that’s the future of telecom too, it epitomizes the change we seek to be within the telecoms industry.

In service,

The BetterWorld Team

Being a good business is like being a good gardener. Or so says William Rosenzwieg, 2010 recipient of the Oslo Business for Peace Award. Rosenzwieg is the Co-founder at Bay Area-based Physic Ventures and works with purpose-driven businesses like Recyclebank, Revolution Foods, GoodGuide, and Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy.

The Oslo Business for Peace award is awarded by the Business for Peace Foundation, who, among other things, touts being Businessworthy as a modern day business gauge like creditworthiness. As stated on their website: What is Businessworthy? Similar to being Creditworthy, the concept of Businessworthy means applying your business energy ethically and responsibly with the purpose of creating economic value that also creates value for society. Sounds very similar to concepts like Benefit Corporations, the triple-bottom line (People, Planet, Profits) and Corporate Social Responsibility.

Rosenzweig highlights the parallels of the successful business person to the wisdom and outlook of a gardener in this excerpt from his award acceptance speech.

“A gardener sees the world as a system of interdependent parts - where healthy, sustaining relationships are essential to the vitality of the whole. “A real gardener is not a person who cultivates flowers, but a person who cultivates the soil.” In business this has translated for me into the importance of developing agreements and partnerships where vision and values, purpose and intent are explicitly articulated, considered and aligned among all stakeholders of an enterprise - customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders, and the broader community and natural environment.

Here at BetterWorld Telecom, we couldn’t agree more. Building partnerships with businesses and organizations who are aligned in mission and purpose is what we’re all about. We’re working to make telecom a force for good, through supporting organizations doing amazing things and making communication technology accessible.

Here’s some more excerpts from Rosenzweig’s speech:

Also gardening, like business, is inherently a local activity, set within an ever-changing and unpredictable global climate. Showing up in person, shovel - and humility in hand is essential.

I am just coming to understand this work of business gardening - and investing in keeping people healthy - as an act of universal responsibility. His Holiness Dalai Lama reminds me: “Each of us must learn to work not just for one self, one’s own family or one’s nation, but for the benefit of all humankind. Universal responsibility is the key to human survival. It is the best foundation for world peace.”

In Service,

The BetterWorld Team

Board of Supervisors Unanimously Approves City Incentives for New Type of Socially Responsible Corporations

Legislation Provides Bid Preferences to Benefit Corporations Contracting With the City

San Francisco, CA – The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously to support an ordinance sponsored by Board President David Chiu that will provide bid preferences on City contracts to Benefit Corporations, a new form of a corporate entity recently authorized by the State of California. The ordinance will be voted on for a second time next Tuesday, April 24, with passage expected.

“As the first city to provide contracting preferences to Benefit Corporations, San Francisco is again leading the nation by supporting new types of socially responsible companies” said Supervisor Chiu. “Since benefit corporations create value for shareholders and society at the same time, we are demonstrating our commitment to sustainability, economic innovation, and social entrepreneurialism.”

The City currently provides contract bid preferences to local businesses, a program administered by the Human Rights Commission.  This new bid preference for Benefit Corporations is modeled after this existing program. However, the bid preference for Benefit Corporations cannot be used to outbid a local business.

In October 2011, Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 361, making California the sixth state to charter this new kind of corporation, joining New Jersey, Virginia, Hawaii, Vermont and Maryland.  A Benefit Corporation is defined as 1) having a corporate purpose to create a material positive impact on society and the environment; 2) redefining fiduciary duty to require consideration of non-financial interests when making corporate decisions; and 3) reporting on its overall social and environmental performance using recognized third party standards.

Currently, there are over 450 Certified Benefit Corporations in 60 different industries nationwide. These companies measure their impact on society and the environment with a third party standard and include stakeholder considerations in their business decisions.  San Francisco has the most Certified Benefit Corporations of any city, and the Bay Area is the home of approximately one quarter of all Certified B Corporations.  San Francisco will be the first U.S. City to provide contracting incentives to these companies, which will further encourage the formation and growth of Benefit Corporations here.

“Contrary to traditional corporations where the maximization of profit is the sole requisite purpose, benefit corporations are required to create a material positive impact on society and the environment,” said Matt Bauer, of BetterWorld Telecom, which is a Benefit Corporation. “We appreciate Supervisor Chiu’s work to pass this legislation, which will help the City and County of San Francisco purchase goods and services from the sorts of businesses that San Francisco should be supporting.”

 

Matt Bauer on the Wendel Forum

BetterWorld ’s Matt Bauer recently visited The Wendel Forum, a radio show dedicated to focusing on the legal side of the green economy.

Interviewed by Bill Acevedo, The Green Business Practice Leader at Wendel Rosen, Bauer spoke of BetterWorld’s journey as a company, bringing purpose and mission to an industry traditionally not involved in the green economy and sustainability efforts.

The Wendel Forum is a collaborative effort of Wendel Rosen’s Green Business Practice Group to bring compelling stories and practical explanations of what’s happening in green business to listeners and runs each Saturday morning at 11:30 a.m. during The Green Morning line up on Green 960 AM.  You can hear recent shows on The Green Morning website.

Among the topics discussed in the interview: BetterWork (how to lower costs and carbon emissions, while increasing profits and employee morale through telecommuting, video, web conferencing and other communication tools), the current legislative and economic trends which have created opportunities for small businesses to succeed, net neutrality and regulatory structures necessary to insure an even playing field for carriers, and the pros and cons for crowd funding and Direct Public Offerings (DPOs), two non-traditional capital-raising options for small businesses.

Listen to the full interview for Episode 45 of The Wendel Forum - BetterWorld Telecom’s Name Reveals Its Mission (27:34 mins; mp3)

The Wendel Forum highlights professionals with experience from many different disciplines to address issues of interest throughout the green economy.

As originally featured in Washington Post.com by Matt Bauer, President, BetterWorld Telecom.

By all accounts, the telecom carrier industry is set to grow again in the coming year. In a world of 7 billion people, almost every one of them owns a handset. And more than 10 percent of the globe is now wired on broadband.

BetterWorld has been a part of the telecom industry’s tremendous growth and was fortunate to make the 2011 Inc. 5000 List. We are on pace to be there again in 2012 due, in part, to industry growth, growing demand as our customers use more teleconferencing and telecommuting and BetterWorld’s firm commitment to social and environmental sustainability. This commitment has engendered customer loyalty through tough times, and it helped us build partnerships and goodwill rarely found in our industry.

Looking forward, we are raising a modest amount of capital in the first or second quarter of 2012. This will allow us to hire 10 more people, roughly doubling our staff.

In our customer base of approximately 1,000 small to mid-sized businesses and nonprofits in 40 states, we’re seeing many customers struggle to keep the lights on. They are frustrated about the difficulty of raising capital to grow their businesses.

While we are focused on internal industry concerns such as telecom consolidation and collusion and those that would dismantle net neutrality, our top concern as a company in 2012 is helping to lead the charge and get much more support to small, independently owned businesses across America. We see this as the largest return on investment for the government, investors and consumers. This is also where our national economic focus needs to lie in the short and medium term.

Small businesses account for a disproportionate share of growth and new job creation. Much of the growth that large businesses report is not internally generated but is the result of their buying up smaller businesses.

According to the latest U.S. Department of Labor stats, small businesses account for roughly a third of our economy. Firms with less than 100 people account for 99 percent of the companies in the U.S., and 30 percent of the jobs.

As both large companies and government shrink their employee rolls, America must strengthen, train and support smaller, independent and innovative businesses. There are many positive signs at all levels that this is happening. The support just needs to be coalesced. Some examples include:

●The Startup America Partnership, chaired by Steve Case, is a private initiative that encourages the formation of fast-growing new businesses. Four separate bills and rule changes are fast tracking now through Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission — all of which will bolster fundraising for smaller start-ups and existing small businesses.

●“Buy Local, Be Local” campaigns are now standard fare in many communities all over America during the holidays. Buying local yields more jobs, stronger communities.

On the horizon, hope is alive with the Millennials and Gen Y’ers. A recent Inc. magazine article stated that 54 percent of this age group said they either wanted to start a business or have already started one.

The entrepreneurial spirit binds America. We need to feed this spirit and adjust our thinking, laws and regulations to bolster the next generation.

Think of this as the greatest opportunity for our country to stay competitive in the world and to hand the next generations a fighting chance.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors President and SF Mayoral Candidate, David Chiu, today held a press conference at the Hub SoMa and laid out his plan for San Francisco to become the beacon and capital of Social Entrepreneurialism, starting with a plan for the City to provide contract bid preferences to CA B Corps or Benefit Corporations. BetterWorld has stood by Supervisor Chiu through this process, which began at a Silicon Valley Leadership Group event a few months ago and culminating recently in a roundtable with Supervisor Chiu with many SF Access Economy and B Corps leaders, including Jeff Marcous of Dharma Merchant Services, Brian Back of Sustainable Industries, David Brodwin from the American Sustainable Business Council, Alex Michel from the 5M Project and others.

“Benefit corporations create value for shareholders and society at the same time. These are exactly the types of companies that we need to be encouraging and rewarding in San Francisco,” said Supervisor Chiu. “San Francisco is known as an international leader in sustainability, economic innovation, and social entrepreneurialism. This first-of-its-kind proposal to provide City contracting preferences to B Corporations reaffirms our City’s leadership.”

Two weeks ago, when Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 261, California became the sixth state to charter this new kind of corporation, joining New Jersey, Virginia, Hawaii, Vermont, and Maryland. A Benefit Corporation is defined as 1) having a corporate purpose to create a material positive impact on society and the environment; 2) redefining fiduciary duty to require consideration of non-financial interests when making corporate decisions; and 3) reporting on it’s overall social and environmental performance using recognized third party standards.

The City currently provides contract bid preferences to local businesses, a program administered by the Human Rights Commission. The proposed legislation would be modeled after this existing program. “As a founding B Corp, BetterWorld Telecom has been involved with this movement since it was just an idea in 2004. “We would like to thank Supervisor Chiu for his leadership in delivering ground-level results that support businesses that place people and the planet alongside profits,” said Matt Bauer, President of BetterWorld Telecom. “It is due in part fo the City of San Francisco’s support of B Corps that BetterWorld Telecom will be moving its headquarters to San Francisco in 2012.”

Currently, there are over 450 certified Benefit Corporations in 60 different industries nationwide. San Francisco has the most Benefit Corporations of any city, and the Bay Area is the home of approximately one quarter of all Benefit Corporations. San Francisco would be the first U.S. City to provide contracting incentives to these companies, thereby fostering the formation and growth of Benefit Corporations here.

“It’s so obvious that San Francisco would be the first major city to be in alignment with the B Corporation model,” said Jeff Marcous of Dharma Merchant Services. “This isn’t just about finding local, sustainable service providers, but it’s also about working with partners who see beyond a single bottom line motivation.”

“Businesses that are on top of their environmental, health and economic impacts on their customers, employees, and the community are not only more valuable overall, they are less risky,” said Sarah Olsen, the Founder and CEO of SVT Group, a B Corp. “SVT Group is a strong supporter of efforts to make these qualities transparent, so the market has more perfect information with which to make decisions.”

Two weeks ago, California became the sixth state in the country to authorize the creation of a revolutionary new category for businesses that choose to operate in a socially responsible, environmentally sustainable way. Today, I will introduce groundbreaking legislation at the Board of Supervisors to help award more City contracts to companies that are promoting the public good. I want to send the message that San Francisco wants its businesses to do well and do good. If my proposal is adopted, San Francisco will be the first city in the nation that directs more of our city dollars to companies that create jobs and make a positive impact on their communities.

BetterWorld and our colleagues who participated in the process would like to salute Supervisor Chiu for his vision and desire to catalyze the amazing energy and innovation that lies within the San Francisco borders - - we are all looking forward to the coming months and years working together to showcase a new public-private partnership model, helping to pave the way for the fast approaching Access Economy.